A woman who was wrongly convicted of an arson attack which killed a mother and her two young daughters has been jailed for six months.

Annette Hewins' imprisonment is the latest chapter in the downward spiral in the life of the 39-year-old mother of five.

Merthyr Crown Court heard how Hewins had become a heroin addict and homeless in the six years since she was freed on appeal after being wrongly convicted of arson following the deaths of Diane Jones and her two daughters in a blaze at their Gurnos home in 1995.

Her barrister, Timothy Evans, told the court that Hewins had been left psychologically damaged by the lengthy period she had wrongly spent in custody and that she had a serious drug problem.

She had even bought a car for £30 to sleep in and got caught shoplifting on purpose as a cry for help.

Mr Evans said: 'At times she was back taking heroin and ended up either sleeping rough or staying with acquaintances.

'She bought the Rover for £30 so she would have somewhere to sleep, to call home.'

In the latest offence, prosecutor Matthew Cobbe said that police had tried to stop her driving dangerously on the A470 in the early hours of October 7.

Despite blue flashing lights and sirens of an unmarked police car, Hewins accelerated to speeds of up to 90mph.

She took roundabouts at high speed, swerved from lane to lane and took blind bends on the wrong side before she pulled into a lay by at Cwmcadlan and made a run for it.

At Cardiff Crown Court in April, she was given a three-year Community Rehabilitation Order for perverting the course of justice, shoplifting offences and breach of a conditional discharge.

On the same day, magistrates passed the same sentence, to run concurrently, for five offences of driving while disqualified.

When she received the order she was homeless because her husband had been pressurised into surrendering the tenancy of their home while she was on remand.

She lost possessions, including material she stored on a computer for a book she was trying to write about her life.

The court heard she committed a shoplifting office in September in a bid to get caught because she needed the help.

While homeless she was on the streets much of the time, buying heroin substitute.

She had detoxed on remand and attended road safety and driver awareness courses but felt she hadn't had the help so far which was intended under the rehabilitation order to deal with her many problems.

Judge John Curran sentenced Hewins, whose address was given as Honeysuckle Close, Gurnos, Merthyr, to four months imprisonment for the three offences of driving dangerously, while banned and without insurance, which she admitted, and disqualified her for a further two years.

He said her 32 days in custody would count and she should be released within a month and still be subject to the CRO and its conditions.